Royal Caribbean VP: Selling cruises no longer makes agent “specialist”

Selling cruises no longer counts as selling specialist holidays in the travel industry, agents were told at this year’s Advantage conference.

Jo Rzymowska, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines associate vice president for UK and Ireland, said travel agents could not call themselves specialists because they were selling cruise holidays.

“If anybody thinks that selling cruise is still a specialism, then they are smoking something,” she said.

But within the cruise sector, there are specialist types of cruises being sold, she said. “What I do think is important is how you specialize within the in cruise sector itself,” she said.

There are opportunities to specialize within the sector and carve out a niche, she told agents. “There is a great opportunity to differentiate within this massive sector. As specialists you should know your customers better and be able to understand what is important to them.”

Agents should decide what type of cruises they wanted to specialize in, be it the gay market or the groups market, she added.